After extensive market research, a thorough examination of the strengths of your business, and determining whether there is a need for your product or service, you have decided you are ready to take your company into international markets. You have also come to realize that people who speak English as their first language comprise less than 30% of all online users. In light of this fact, you know that in order to be successful in your attempts at taking your business global, you will have to localize your websites, documents, and marketing materials. But with all the countries in the world, how do you pinpoint the best market for your business? With all the languages spoken across the globe, how do you determine into which language(s) to localize? With so many options, how do you choose? Read more »

In this 4-part series, “Corporate Culture Shock in America,” author Susan Davidson explains the cost of lost productivity incurred by American corporations because of months of isolation, confusion, and frustration experienced by expatriates and foreign nationals who relocate to the United States to live and work.

In this 4-part series, “Corporate Culture Shock in America,” author Susan Davidson explains the cost of lost productivity incurred by American corporations because of months of isolation, confusion, and frustration experienced by expatriates and foreign nationals who relocate to the United States to live and work. In this section she discusses:

In this 4-part series, “Corporate Culture Shock in America,” author Susan Davidson explains the cost of lost productivity incurred by American corporations because of months of isolation, confusion, and frustration experienced by expatriates and foreign nationals who relocate to the United States to live and work.

At the end of this section, Davidson discusses the Stages of Adjustment.

Expatriates and foreign nationals who relocate to the United States to live and work often have mixed perceptions about this young nation. Those feelings are probably best described by the late Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde, who referred to America as “a land of unmatched vitality and vulgarity.”

While most Americans rarely think of their country as “foreign,” the fact is that non-Americans who relocate to the United States to do business and “do lunch” are often surprised to find they experience a severe case of “corporate culture shock.”

According to recently conducted research with dozens of foreign business professionals working in Atlanta and other southeastern U.S. cities, the human resource departments of multinational corporations are woefully inadequate in preparing foreigners for the American workplace. The purpose of the study was to learn about foreign managers’ experiences and attitudes regarding the American business culture. More than half of this diverse group of CEOs, CFOs, vice presidents, directors, managers, engineers, and analysts were European. In total, 26 different countries were represented.

Equally disturbing is the finding that American employees lack cross-cultural awareness and skills that would enable them to draw on the diverse, global talents and business experiences of their non-American counterparts.

Once the physical relocation to the United States is complete, most foreigners and their families say employers provide little, if any, assistance to help them integrate into the American community and business environment. They often struggle up to a year or longer to adapt.

The financial cost of cross-border relocations is steep; often two to four times the transferee’s salary. But the cost of lost productivity because of months of isolation, confusion, and frustration is incalculable. The adaptation period could be reduced by 50 percent with adequate cultural orientation and training, professional coaching, and mentoring. If corporations would simply invest an additional 5 to 10 percent of their relocation cost into cross-cultural orientation, training, and coaching, they would be buying an insurance policy that protects their substantial investment in their expatriate and foreign nationals, realizing a greater productivity return on their investment much sooner.

Stages of Adjustment

Left on their own, foreign professionals frequently go through three stages of acculturation:

Discovery. First, they encounter the barriers and differences that create discomfort and frustration for them and their families.

Search. Second, they begin to look for the people and resources that can help them overcome the cultural barriers.

Adaptation. Finally, they make the necessary adjustments to their communication style, work style, and business practices to build relationships with their American colleagues.

Some foreigners never make it through the adaptation stage and continue to remain isolated from their American colleagues and are less-than-effective in their jobs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Susan Davidson is founder and president of Beyond Borders, Inc., an Atlanta-based coaching, training and consulting firm that specializes in improving the business performance of global managers and teams. Susan has worked with Fortune 500 and global corporations for more than 25 years to improve the sales, leadership skills, communications and business effectiveness of leaders, employees and salespeople.

Ms. Davidson has published several articles on her groundbreaking research with foreign business professionals who experience “corporate culture shock” in the U.S. workplace. She is also a featured speaker for human resource, international and training organizations. She can be reached at 770.451.997 or by visiting http://www.beyondborders.us.

In the impressive list of coverage announced by Alain Yee-Loong Chong, Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Network and Mobile Technologies(IJNMT), the very last topic is “Cross cultural network/mobile communication issues.” But just why would this prestigious journal feel that cross cultural communication issues are worthy of coverage?

As Chong explains, “The aim of International Journal of Network and Mobile Technologies (IJNMT) is promote, address and capture innovative and state of the art research and work in the network and mobile technologies field,” encompassing everything from businesses to entertainment.

“What are you talking about? Cross Cultural Strategies? You mean like those giant US companies that do business overseas? No. That doesn’t affect me.”

If you had thoughts like that when you read this headline, read on. You are in for a big surprise. As an employee or as small local business, either on line or on the street, you more than likely communicate across cultures every day and you didn’t even know it.

When you are shopping or go to work, do you deal with persons with a different cultural background than yourself? Then you are using communicating across cultures. Read more »

Your online business can have global visibility. But is your message getting across to different cultures as you expect it? Are you able to adapt quickly to global market opportunities you see pop up? Or would you like to know how to quickly target different international audiences, with little investment on your part?

With a little thought and some careful preparation you can have an effective international presence through your current local business. Sure, language skills can help you open doors. But careful consideration to different cultures can give you a great advantage.

Get more business from non-native English speakers

Today there are more non-native English speakers in the global web market than there are native English speakers. And the e-businesses in many foreign language countries is expanding rapidly.